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Andras Schiff

Beethoven: Diabelli Variations

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1 Beethoven: Sonata #32 C Minor, Op. 111 / 1
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3 Beethoven: Diabelli Variations, Op. 120
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ECM NEW SERIES presents András Schiff: Beethoven: Diabelli Variations, Sonata No. 32 in C minor, op. 111 & Six Bagatelles, op. 126.

The Diabelli Variations have long been considered a magnum opus in Beethoven's piano music and a towering historical contribution to the genre, with Bach's Goldberg Variations as their forebear and Brahms's Handel Variations as their heir. Yet many pianists, even great pianists, have been intimidated by their sheer immensity. Throughout their careers Edwin Fischer and Wilhelm Kempff gave a wide berth to this allegedly unwieldy masterpiece, a work that sometimes sounds like a melancholy or grimly humorous commentary on the whole of music history and seems to cast an avant-gardist glance at 20th- or even 21st-century music.

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  • Sir Andras Schiff's first solo Celebrity Series appearance since 2016, was a concert to remember / the arts fuse
    Posted At: November 13, 2023 12:00 AM
    The pianist provided a 150-minute long procession of anecdotes, thoughts, and absolutely first-class playing for his adoring, thoroughly attentive audience, who happily bought tickets to hear whatever Sir András Schiff chose to play.the arts fuse - Susan Miron writes….Friday night at a sold-out Jordan Hall. It was Sir András Schiff’s first solo appearance on Celebrity Series since 2016, and it was a concert...
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  • Andras Schiff's incredible Korner Hall performance / LaScenaMusicale
    Posted At: November 6, 2023 12:00 AM
    LaScenaMusicale's PAUL E. ROBINSON writes….I first met András Schiff in 1984. I was privileged to be the conductor when he came to play Mozart with the CJRT Orchestra at Massey Hall. At the time I was struck by his astounding musicality – he seemed to know everything and couldn’t stop talking about it – but also the ebullience of his personality and his great sense of humour.It didn’t hurt that we both love...
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  • Why would Andras Schiff create a two-disc set of Bach keyboard works on the clavichord ? / CD Hotlist
    Posted At: April 3, 2023 12:00 AM
    András Schiff is one of the greatest J.S. Bach interpreters of our time and his dedication to Bach’s oeuvre has been extensively recorded on ECM’s New Series, receiving wide acclaim with his interpretation of the Goldberg Variations (2001) and the Six Partitas (2007), before taking on both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier (2012). The New York Times: “Mr. Schiff is, in Bach, a phenomenon. He doesn’t so muc...
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  • Andras Schiff's lucid interpretations on 'Clavichord' emphasize the converging voices with rare accuracy / THE CLASSIC REVIEW
    Posted At: January 30, 2023 12:00 AM
    András Schiff is one of the greatest J.S. Bach interpreters of our time and his dedication to Bach’s oeuvre has been extensively recorded on ECM’s New Series, receiving wide acclaim with his interpretation of the Goldberg Variations (2001) and the Six Partitas (2007), before taking on both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier (2012). The New York Times: “Mr. Schiff is, in Bach, a phenomenon. He doesn’t so muc...
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  • Andras Schiff - Brahms Piano Concertos w/ Orch of the Age of Enlightenment makes THE WEEK: best albums of 2021
    Posted At: December 30, 2021 12:00 AM
    András Schiff already turned to period instruments on some of his earlier recordings for ECM's New Series, including his two double albums with Schubert's late piano works, for which he used a fortepiano built by Franz Brodmann in 1820. He had used the same instrument for his double album with Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, contrasting this version with a reading of the same work on a Bechstein grand of 1...
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  • Andras Schiffs typically intelligent accounts of the two Brahms piano concertos makes The Guardian's 'best classical releases of 2021'
    Posted At: December 16, 2021 12:00 AM

    The Guardian's Andrew Clements writes......In 2020, the schedules of the classical record industry hardly seemed to miss a beat, despite all the disruptions of Covid-19. Live performances mined from the archives and a backlog of studio-made recordings provided more than enough material to maintain a near-normal stream of releases. And even this year, when such reserves have surely been depleted, ther...
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  • Andras Schiff - Brahms Piano Concertosmakes Pianist Magazine's 'Top 10 piano album releases of 2021'
    Posted At: December 15, 2021 12:00 AM

    Pianist Magazine' writes....2021 has treated us to a huge number of new releases from our favourite pianists. Here we've gathered our favourite 10 of the year... Included on our list is Brahms Piano Concertos – András Schiff.   Another unmissable album from Schiff, who releases yet another stellar recording. Both of the concertos featured on this record contain mountains...
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  • Everything old is new again as Andras Schiff's period instrument 'Brahms Piano Concertos' proves a revelation / LIMELIGHT: Editor's Choice
    Posted At: July 16, 2021 12:00 AM

    LIMELIGHT's Michael Quinn writes......Ably abetted by the period-instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, András Schiff has stripped back Brahms's warhorse Piano Concertos to their essentials and the results are revelatory. Schiff's choice of a Blüthner grand piano dating from around 1859 (the year in which the First Piano Concerto was premiered) is both apt and inspired. Pia...
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  • Andras Schiff - Brahms Piano Concertos is a most satisfying listening experience / THE REHEARSAL STUDIO
    Posted At: June 28, 2021 12:00 AM

    On his latest recently released ECM New Series album, András Schiff serves as both conductor and piano soloist in performances of Johannes Brahms' two piano concertos. Schiff has been a regular visitor to San Francisco, presenting several multi-program themed piano recitals, usually under the combined curation of both San Francisco Performances and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). However, over t...
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  • Andras Schiff embraces historical authenticity on new Brahms recording / The New York Times
    Posted At: June 4, 2021 12:00 AM

    David Weininger for The New York Times writes...... A Pianist Comes Around on Period Instruments - Early in his career, Andras Schiff disdained historical authenticity. Now he embraces it, including on a revelatory new Brahms recording. For much of his career, the eminent pianist Andras Schiff, 67, disdained the use of historical instruments. He proudly played Bach on modern pianos...
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  • Andras Schiff w/Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment - Brahms: Piano Concertos is wonderfully rounded and mature / The Guardian
    Posted At: June 3, 2021 12:00 AM

    Arnold Schoenberg called him ‘Brahms the Progressive'. Whilst Johannes Brahms's musical language and formal cosmos were deeply rooted in the past, by burrowing into the music of Bach and Beethoven he brought forth compositional fabrics of a tight-knit perfection that pointed far into the future. Yet, over years of continuously evolving interpretations, Brahms's oeuvre has acquired a...
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  • Great works are gifts that keep on giving - Andras Schiff: Franz Schubert Sonatas and Impromptus / The New York Times
    Posted At: January 4, 2020 12:00 AM

    New accounts of standard works, even those covered by dozens of classic recordings, can still enliven classical music. The standard repertory in classical music is often standard for good reason: Great works are gifts that keep on giving with repeated hearings. But what about repeated recordings? The masterful Andras Schiff has already recorded Schubert's complete sonatas and impromptus (and some of ...
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  • Fortepiano makes all the difference! Sir Andras Schiff's 'Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus' is LIMELIGHT'S 'instrumental recording of the year'
    Posted At: November 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} While 2018 was a good year for the big labels as far as the Limelight Awards were concerned, if there's a winner in 2019 it would have to be living composers. Out of the final 25 recordings, a remarkable six living composers are represented: Arvo Pärt, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Nigel Westlake, Steve Reich, Kaija Saaria...
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  • Andras Schiff reveals a new way of listening to Bach's Partitas at London's Wigmore Hall / The Independent
    Posted At: May 13, 2019 12:00 AM

    Sir Andras Schiff – the honorific suits him better with every year that passes – is on a roll. After demonstrating in concert the suitability of the fortepiano for Schubert's works, he has just brought out a CD (Franz Schubert – Sonatas & Impromptus) which drives the point unarguably home: to call this performance of the final two sonatas revelatory is nothing less than the truth, b...
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  • Andras Schiff's committed playing on 'Franz Schubert Sonatas and Impromptus' / Classical Music Sentinel
    Posted At: May 9, 2019 12:00 AM

    With somewhere around 35 years of outstanding recordings to his credit, mostly for the Decca label, Hungarian pianist Andras Schiff certainly doesn't need a formal introduction. Except to say that he's always been highly respected for his clear and delicate articulation, and deeply insightful interpretations especially for the music of Mozart and Schubert. And this clarity of textures and voice s...
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  • The latest chapter in Andras Schiff's ongoing documentation of Franz Schubert's music / Wisconsin Public Radio
    Posted At: May 8, 2019 12:00 AM

    ..... the pianist plays the Four Impromptus D 899 plus compositions from 1828, the last year of Schubert's short life: The Three Pieces D 946, the C minor Sonata D 958, and the A major Sonata D 959. Schiff is playing his Brodmann fortepiano from circa 1820. "It is to me ideally suited to Schubert's keyboard works," he said. The critics agree with that choice and with how Schiff performs: "I cannot think ...
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  • Andras Schiff - Franz Schubert Sonatas & Impromptus is WFMT: Featured New Release
    Posted At: May 3, 2019 12:00 AM

    In the latest chapter in András Schiff's ongoing documentation of Franz Schubert's music, the pianist plays the Four Impromptus, D. 899, and compositions from 1828, the last year of Schubert's too brief life: the Three Pieces, D. 946 ("impromptus in all but name" notes Misha Donat in the CD booklet), the C minor Sonata, D. 958, and the A major Sonata, D. 959. Schiff again chooses to use a fortepia...
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  • Andras Schiff's 1820 piano brings fascinating insights to Schubert: Sonatas & Impromptus / The Guardian
    Posted At: April 11, 2019 12:00 AM

    In 2010, András Schiff acquired a fortepiano made in Vienna in about 1820 by Franz Brodmann. It had once belonged to the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, Karl I, and had been very carefully renovated in the 1960s. Schiff subsequently placed the instrument on loan in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, but not before using it for a series of recordings and recitals. There have been discs of late Beethove...
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  • Sleepless nights with Andras Schiff and Beethoven / The New Yorker
    Posted At: December 10, 2018 12:00 AM

    In the mid-two-thousands, when Schiff performed the full cycle of sonatas at Wigmore Hall, in London, each of his eight concerts was preceded by a separate lecture-recital, in which he explored and reflected on the works more deeply before his audience (Wigmore Hall has since posted the lecture-recitals on its Web site). As Schiff opened the first evening of his lectures, which covered sonatas one throug...
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  • Andras Schiff, set for Melbourne Festival and the Sydney Opera House says 'art and politics are inseparable' / The Sydney Morning Herald
    Posted At: October 2, 2018 12:00 AM

    Sir Andras Schiff performs at Hamer Hall, Melbourne on October 20 as part of Melbourne Festival and on October 22 at the Sydney Opera House.   Schiff is a man of integrity, both as an interpreter of music and as a quiet but staunch advocate for human rights, who holds grave fears for Europe. He has not set foot in his native Hungary since 2010 in protest at the authoritarian politics of "strong ...
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  • Prom 63: A thoughtful, sober, and understated performance by Andras Schiff playing The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II / INDEPENDENT
    Posted At: September 3, 2018 12:00 AM

    Imagine an actor playing Hamlet. Then imagine him also taking every other role in the play as well – from memory, without an interval, alone on stage in front of an audience of thousands. That is what it means for a pianist to perform the complete Book II of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier at the Proms.  24 Preludes and Fugues – almost three hours of intricate, inventive, elusive music ...
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  • Andras Schiff visits Davies Hall with Brahms as centerpiece / San Francisco Classical Voice
    Posted At: April 17, 2018 12:00 AM

    The Hungarian pianist András Schiff, whose regular visits to Davies Hall have become singular fusions of technical mastery, penetrating artistry, and musical intelligence, played the first of two programs Sunday, April 15 to a keenly attentive and warmly appreciative crowd. The centerpiece this time was Brahms, with Eight Piano Pieces, Op. 76 positioned just before intermission and Seven Fantasies...
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  • Andras Schiff returns to Davies Hall, with his keen mix of sensitivity and brawn / The Mercury News
    Posted At: April 11, 2018 12:00 AM

    Pianist András Schiff, who brings a keen mix of sensitivity and brawn to a wide range of piano repertoire, returns to Davies Symphony Hall this weekend with two programs featuring mature works by Brahms. The first, on Sunday, puts the spotlight on the composer's Eight Piano Pieces and Seven Fantasies. In the second program, on Tuesday, Schiff plays Brahms' Three Intermezzi and selections from the ...
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  • Andras Schiff is a master of detail at the Kimmel / Philadelphia Inquirer
    Posted At: April 1, 2018 12:00 AM

    For his recital Saturday night at the Perelman Theater, pianist András Schiff had his Bösendorfer turned slightly, the better to see his hands at work upon the keyboard. The unusual angle struck me as something of a joke, since, really, there is little in the way of physical evidence pointing to what makes him such an unusual musician. The magic, in fact, was more discernible if you ...
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  • Andras Schiff graces the faithful in all-Schubert program at Strathmore / Washington Post
    Posted At: March 9, 2017 12:00 AM

    To attend an Andras Schiff recital is to enter a secular temple to music. The eminent ­Hungarian-born British pianist carries himself like a high priest of Viennese classicism, communing with the musical gods with an air of becalmed reverence. Above all, there is a hush, a solemnity to the proceedings. A preconcert admonition to refrain from coughing reminds us we are leaving the physical realm behin...
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  • Andras Schiff - Beethoven: The Piano Sonatas / theguardian review
    Posted At: January 5, 2017 12:00 AM

    Taken from recitals he gave at the Tonhalle in Zürich between 2004 and 2007, András Schiff's cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas appeared chronologically disc by disc. Boxed together now, the ordering and even packaging of the original discs has been preserved, meaning, for example, that the E flat major Sonata Op 7 and the Waldstein Op 53 (with its original slow movement, the Andante Favori, ...
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  • Andras Schiff joins Galilee Orchestra for this year's Christmas concert in Nazareth / The Jerusalem Post
    Posted At: December 18, 2016 12:00 AM

    Hungarian-born virtuoso British classical pianist and conductor Sir Andras Schiff is joining the Galilee Orchestra for the annual Christmas concert in Nazareth. The concert, replete with Christmas decorations, will take place December 19 at the Industrial Park at 8:30 p.m. Together with Schiff, the Galilee Orchestra will present a festive Romantic program: Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Mendels...
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  • Andras Schiff makes Bach & Bartok logical companions for sold out Wigmore Hall / Evening Standard
    Posted At: November 30, 2016 12:00 AM

    Wigmore Hall audiences are fair-minded and welcoming, but they have their favourites, and the pianist András Schiff is definitely one of them. Last night's full house was rewarded with a typically imaginative programme. In the first half, Schiff interspersed groups of Bach's Two-Part Inventions, written for one of the composer's gifted children, with short pieces by Bartók, some of them...
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  • Andras Schiff plays astounding all-Bach recital / The Straits Times
    Posted At: November 1, 2016 12:00 AM

    Following his all-Beethoven programme in Singapore in 2014, Hungary-born Sir Andras Schiff, this year's Ong Teng Cheong professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, presented an astounding all-Bach recital. He included the Goldberg Variations, perhaps the most celebrated set of theme and variations in the keyboard repertoire. The works in the programme were all written for the harpsicho...
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  • Andras Schiff returns to Proms next week. How did 'guardian' review his Beethoven - 35 years ago
    Posted At: August 24, 2016 12:00 AM

    From the guardian classical archive, 15 March 1982: - Andras Schiff reviewed in 1982:   'He is a joy to hear, if not always to see' No-one who heard Andras Schiff's Sunday afternoon piano recital at the Queen Elizabeth Hall could have left the hall cold to the sheer radiance of his technique, which was constantly a joy to hear, if not always to see. In performance, Schiff presents a...
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  • Schleswig-Holstein Festival marks 30th ann. focusing on Andras Schiff / Deutsche Welle
    Posted At: July 1, 2016 12:00 AM

    The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival marks its 30th anniversary. After the downbeat on July 2, Germany's largest-scale classical music festival stages 178 concerts until August 28. Points of focus include the composer Joseph Haydn and the pianist András Schiff. Ten concerts are dedicated to Schiff - or rather, the 62-year-old Austrian-British pianist of Hungarian heritage has set them up hims...
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  • Andras Schiff's immense performances at Wigmore Hall / theguardian
    Posted At: April 8, 2016 12:00 AM

    long with Bach, the first Viennese school – Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert – has always been at the centre of András Schiff's musical universe. He goes back to that music regularly in his recitals but, never content to retread the same ground, he manages to find new approaches, new things to discover about such inexhaustible masterpieces. His latest three Wigmore Hall recitals a...
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  • Andras Schiff plays Washington Performing Arts at Strathmore / DC Metro Theater Arts
    Posted At: March 1, 2016 12:00 AM

    If there is a spiritual content to music – music by itself, no lyrics, just abstract sound – then many listeners down through history have claimed to hear it in the final works of great composers. The closest you're likely to come to discovering that for yourself is to hear pianist András Schiff play these compositions. Last Wednesday night Mr. Schiff brought the final sonatas ...
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  • Andras Schiff returns to Celebrity Series / The Boston Musical Intelligencer
    Posted At: February 29, 2016 12:00 AM

    The sold-out Jordan Hall seemed to pulse with anticipation for Sir András Schiff's return to the Celebrity Series after two-and-a-half-year interval. More than a few came to hear not just a star of the international circuit, but also a charming narrator whose Beethoven sonata lectures from Wigmore Hall have developed a global reach. There would be of course no commentary during the recital, but th...
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  • Koerner Hall concert in good hands with Andras Schiff / Toronto Star
    Posted At: February 29, 2016 12:00 AM

    A concert hall, a piano and a pair of hands: this was all that was needed for a musically fulsome afternoon with Hungarian pianist Sir Andras Schiff. Even before a note was played, conversations circled the audience recounting Schiff's past divinations. This appearance marked his fourth performance at Koerner Hall, with a program made up entirely of final piano sonatas by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Sch...
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  • Andras Schiff's 'Franz Schubert: Piano Sonatas' Makes Iowa Public Radio's 2015 Mega-Meta-List
    Posted At: January 15, 2016 12:00 AM

    Today's output of classical albums is (pardon me while I scribble on the back of an envelope) something like triple what it was a generation ago. I won't vouch for that exact ratio, but I will for Anne Midgette's description of how it feels: "Keeping up with the stream of new releases is like trying to drink from a fire hose." Now imagine trying to capture a hose's jet...
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